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Nemetschek may adopt Parasolids modeling kernel, leading the way for industry leadership for a BIM application with advanced modeling. Mac CAD app may lead over industry giant Autodesk

The makers of VectorWorks, the leading cross-platform CAD software are suspected to be very near a release of the next version of their flagship product VectorWorks. Highlighting the release is rumor of a new modeling kernel. The company has previously used its own geometry kernel technology for 3D as well as recently embracing IntegrityWare’s Solids++ as well as using SMLib for more than seven years.

Unlike Autodesk, which bought the rights to extending Spatial’s ACIS modeling kernel and has since went in-house with a new 3D geometry kernel for most of its key CAD technology, Nemetschek North America isn’t big enough to support that kind of development, despite having over 450,000 users worldwide. Most CAD companies license kernel technology from 3D CAD giants like UGS’s Parasolid, Dassault’s Spatial division’s ACIS, IntegrityWare or SMLib.

We suspect that Nemetschek has embraced Parasolids over ACIS due to Spatial’s issues with keeping pace with Parasolids as well as the not too recent support and embracing of the Mac platform by Parasolids. UGS turned out to be its own mystery customer when it announced Mac Parasolids support back at COFES the middle of this decade. UGS’s NX (Unigraphics) is used extensively by Apple’s internal industry design and product teams.

If Nemetschek embraces Parasolids, it would likely place VectorWorks in the most advanced standing in the area of advanced modeling as compared to Autodesk and other competitors. Parasolids today is widely seen as the leading modeling kernel on the market.